


The debate

by CliffMotes



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-09
Updated: 2019-01-09
Packaged: 2019-10-07 04:33:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17359034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CliffMotes/pseuds/CliffMotes
Summary: Davenport never thought he'd be the one to make the call.I've always been annoyed we've never gotten, that I've seen, a story about one of the IPRE crew deciding whether or not to leave the plane after the deaths of the other birds. I have, as the new year is upon us, decide to take matters into my own hands and get some writing practice along the way. It's my first fic so any tips you have would be well desired.





	The debate

“I shouldn't worry about it too much. From what I’ve heard the Starblaster sounds like a good ship.” Those had been the words one of his fellow captains had offered to allay his remaining doubts before he set of on his journey. It upset him deeply that he didn't remember the name of that captain, but then he supposed it didn’t really matter any more. Not like it used to. Not like it did when that memory was the only home he had.

As it turned out that unnamed captain had been correct. The Starblaster used to sound like a good ship. It sounded like Lup and Taako cooking something delicious while arguing about something they would later assure everyone was of immense importance. It sounded like Lucretia’s quills scratching in her journals and sudden cries of “Magnus” whenever someone was deemed to be relaxing to hard. It didn't sound much like a good ship anymore. It didn't sound much like anything.

As he sat on the bow of the ship staring at a reflective wall of emerald light, he decided that that was the worst part. One hundred years of grieving for the dead, be it their friends or the planes they failed to save, had prepared Davenport on saying goodbye. It had not prepared him for silence. Silence was the hardest part of losing people for good. He was pretty sure Merle said that at someone’s deathbed. The thought of his friends brought him back to the moment he was in, alone, idling at the edge of the material plane, trying to work up the courage to turn the ship around… or to just do something.

One year ago Taako from TV, died, some god trying to get at Istus through the Raven Queen had tried to get to her by going after her reaper’s boyfriend and had got a lucky shot in, leaving Davenport alone for the first time in at least a century, leaving him to think about the same thing all the birds thought about when one of them died. Leaving him to make the decision.

Davenport always knew one of them would have to make the decision, he had never put much thought into it as some of the others had. After all, he was a gnome, and gnomes didn’t outlive elves. Or liches. Or even dwarves. That wasn’t to say he hadn’t put thought into it at all, he just never thought it would be him.

When Magnus died the question had been easy to answer. “Should we leave?” He couldn't remember who had actually said it, he couldn’t even remember who was on what side, just that the debate had gotten loud. It had been easier to make up his mind that time, Magnus wouldn’t have wanted them to reset. He was happy with Julia, Kravitz had made sure of that. But it was still tempting; just fly out of the plane and Magnus would be back. It would be so easy

It would be SO easy.

No one said anything at Lucretia’s funeral. It had been such a short time since Magnus’s and there wasn’t much to say, but it weighted on Davenport’s mind. For all she’d done to them, for all she’d done to him, she was still Lucretia and her absence was felt. But as hard as her death hit him, he knew he could take comfort in the good she’d done, he knew that, with all she’d made, with all she suffered, she wouldn’t, couldn’t, want another cycle. She had said as much on her deathbed, she had had time to say it. But not all exits are made equal.

When the god of death went to war, the reapers went to war. When the god of death goes to war against another god, there are casualties. When a mad man working for a mad god began resurrecting the dead on a level unparalleled, the reapers made their move. Davenport had only wished he had been there. Merle had wished he had been there. Taako wished he had been there.It didn’t really matter what they wished though, they weren’t there. And the debate arose again, more difficult to ignore, and full of more gloom, rage, and regret than ever before. It ended badly.

Davenport and Merle watched Taako storm away, as they had at the conclusion of so many other lost arguments. This time felt more momentous. Last meetings often do.

It was an insultingly short amount of time after the deaths of Lup and Barry, Davenport had wondered silently if deaths was the correct word, when Bottlenose cove was struck with the kind of natural disaster the Gaia sash could only dream of. It was some consolation, Taako would later tell him, in their first meeting since the argument, that Merle died how he lived; making sure people got where they needed to be. 

There was no debate at the vigil for Bottlenose, Taako and Davenport knew each other's perspectives, there was, however, a lot of drinking, and a lot of Kenny Chesney music. The final two birds made peace. It was nice, and by the end Davenport and Kravitz, although mostly Kravitz, had convinced him that this really did need to be the last cycle.

One year ago Taako from TV, died. One year alone. One year of the same debate he’d had with his family so many times. One year to categorize, compartmentalize, and organize, every possible argument. To feel what Lucretia must have felt. To feel Lonely.

Davenport sat on the deck of that Starblaster, inches away from the edge of the universe. Inches away from seeing his family again. Of course, things were never that simple. If they were he would have made his mind up already. He knew what he wanted, but he couldn’t have it without going against his friends. Each of them died content in the knowledge that this was their last cycle. He couldn’t bring them back, he couldn’t do that to them. But he couldn’t bear not being with them, not hearing the Starblaster sound like it should. 

He sat in place, locked in some cruel cycle of logic, for almost a day and a half, getting more frustrated, more…. dissatisfied with all that had happened, more… vexed at his circumstance, until it dawned on him. Something Taako had said during the day of story and song.

There is a third option.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm really unsure about the ending. It was either this or ambiguous "he hit the button and the ship did the thing that pressing that button made the ship do" type ending. Opinions?


End file.
